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jenny_islanderI return to Foster's non-exhaustive list of pitfalls in the practice of spiritual disciplines.
The fourth pitfall in his list of seven is the temptation to concentrate on spiritual disciplines and forget that the point of them is to open the door for Christ. If you are going along doing your spiritual practices, and you hear God telling you to drop the usual routine and go do something else, and you resist because you want to continue with your spiritual practice, you have forgotten the point of spiritual discipline.
The fifth is becoming fascinated with a single discipline to the neglect of others. Spiritual disciplines are "an organic unity, a single path." Put another way, describing the Good Life as abundant life means that you have been handed a whole lot of good things all at once. Allow each of them a place in your life. Trying to nourish your soul on one of them exclusively is poor spiritual hygiene.
The sixth pitfall is regarding any teaching on spiritual discipline as complete. "I have no exhaustive list of the Christian Disciplines," says Foster, "and as far as I know, none exists. For who can confine the Spirit of God?" The twelve spiritual disciplines in these books have been topics of broad discussion for a long time, which is why Foster picked them for Celebration of Discipline and its study guide. But they are not the whole picture. We were made in God's image, but being finite creatures, we are not a complete image, nor can we comprehend the entirety of God's grace. So there may be some other spiritual discipline that appears to you at the right time.
The seventh pitfall is stopping at discussion and study. You have to get off your cushion and actually do the thing. It's like reading about physical therapy versus actually doing it.
And that is where I stopped when I first picked up these books twenty years ago. "To step out into experience threatens us at the core of our being. And yet there is no other way. Prayerfully, slowly, perhaps with many fears and questions, we need to move into this adventurous life of the Spirit." I was too afraid.
This is not the place for my spiritual autobiography. I will say only that I was once instructed to make a detailed list of events in my early life for the benefit of someone else's therapist. I did so, concentrating on what I perceived as the root causes of my bad habits in my relationship with that person. The therapist spent some time reading over this list in complete silence (we were alone in her office), then looked up at me and said gently, "You weren't ever treated as a person, were you? Just a thing." And that's how I started crying in the office of a therapist who wasn't even mine. Because I had known this all my life, but no one had ever acknowledged it to my face.
I worked very hard to become a person, in spite of people who wanted to use, discard, or consume me. It has taken me a long time to arrive at a point in my spiritual journey where I can face the fear of being changed--of losing what stability I worked for, even though what replaces it will be better. But I want to live more fully in the entire real world, not only the small corner of the world that I carved out for myself. So I have returned to Foster's writings.
Anyway, Foster recommends the following Scripture readings on the topic of spiritual disciplines as the door to liberation. This is nowhere near the massive reading list of the introduction! Read in the suggested order and take your time.
The longing to go deeper: Psalm 42
The slavery of ingrained habits: Psalm 51, Romans 7:13-25
The bankruptcy of outward righteousness: Philippians 3:1-16
The pervasiveness of sin: Proverbs 6:16-19, Romans 6:5-14
The victory of Spiritual Discipline: Ephesians 6:10-20
Beginning with this chapter, Foster provides study questions for the reader. I won't list them here because they refer to the entire text, not my summary and paraphrase. But each could form the basis of its own post.
Foster quotes extensively from the saints in every chapter. In my next post I will provide the booklist he presents at the end of Chapter 1 of the study guide.
The fourth pitfall in his list of seven is the temptation to concentrate on spiritual disciplines and forget that the point of them is to open the door for Christ. If you are going along doing your spiritual practices, and you hear God telling you to drop the usual routine and go do something else, and you resist because you want to continue with your spiritual practice, you have forgotten the point of spiritual discipline.
The fifth is becoming fascinated with a single discipline to the neglect of others. Spiritual disciplines are "an organic unity, a single path." Put another way, describing the Good Life as abundant life means that you have been handed a whole lot of good things all at once. Allow each of them a place in your life. Trying to nourish your soul on one of them exclusively is poor spiritual hygiene.
The sixth pitfall is regarding any teaching on spiritual discipline as complete. "I have no exhaustive list of the Christian Disciplines," says Foster, "and as far as I know, none exists. For who can confine the Spirit of God?" The twelve spiritual disciplines in these books have been topics of broad discussion for a long time, which is why Foster picked them for Celebration of Discipline and its study guide. But they are not the whole picture. We were made in God's image, but being finite creatures, we are not a complete image, nor can we comprehend the entirety of God's grace. So there may be some other spiritual discipline that appears to you at the right time.
The seventh pitfall is stopping at discussion and study. You have to get off your cushion and actually do the thing. It's like reading about physical therapy versus actually doing it.
And that is where I stopped when I first picked up these books twenty years ago. "To step out into experience threatens us at the core of our being. And yet there is no other way. Prayerfully, slowly, perhaps with many fears and questions, we need to move into this adventurous life of the Spirit." I was too afraid.
This is not the place for my spiritual autobiography. I will say only that I was once instructed to make a detailed list of events in my early life for the benefit of someone else's therapist. I did so, concentrating on what I perceived as the root causes of my bad habits in my relationship with that person. The therapist spent some time reading over this list in complete silence (we were alone in her office), then looked up at me and said gently, "You weren't ever treated as a person, were you? Just a thing." And that's how I started crying in the office of a therapist who wasn't even mine. Because I had known this all my life, but no one had ever acknowledged it to my face.
I worked very hard to become a person, in spite of people who wanted to use, discard, or consume me. It has taken me a long time to arrive at a point in my spiritual journey where I can face the fear of being changed--of losing what stability I worked for, even though what replaces it will be better. But I want to live more fully in the entire real world, not only the small corner of the world that I carved out for myself. So I have returned to Foster's writings.
Anyway, Foster recommends the following Scripture readings on the topic of spiritual disciplines as the door to liberation. This is nowhere near the massive reading list of the introduction! Read in the suggested order and take your time.
The longing to go deeper: Psalm 42
The slavery of ingrained habits: Psalm 51, Romans 7:13-25
The bankruptcy of outward righteousness: Philippians 3:1-16
The pervasiveness of sin: Proverbs 6:16-19, Romans 6:5-14
The victory of Spiritual Discipline: Ephesians 6:10-20
Beginning with this chapter, Foster provides study questions for the reader. I won't list them here because they refer to the entire text, not my summary and paraphrase. But each could form the basis of its own post.
Foster quotes extensively from the saints in every chapter. In my next post I will provide the booklist he presents at the end of Chapter 1 of the study guide.
